So much for the Arab League monitor mission in Syria, which seems to have done nothing but buy time for the Bashar al-Assad regime to continue its brutal campaign against civilians. After last month's incident of the head of the mission saying that he found "nothing frightening" in the city of Homs -- the bloody flashpoint of the 10-month uprising -- regime opponents lashed out online at the Arab League for basically observing with their eyes closed. Saudi Arabia pulled out of the mission on Sunday, arguing that Assad had clearly not followed the Arab League's peace plan. "We are calling on the international community to bear its responsibility, and that includes our brothers in Islamic states and our friends in Russia, China, Europe and the United States," Prince Saud al-Faisal said.

But wait -- even though more than 600 Syrians have been killed since their arrival, the Arab League is extending the monitoring mission for another month. More:

The League decided to add more observers and provide them with additional resources, the officials said.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak to reporters, said the U.N. would train the observers.

The observer mission is supposed to be the first step toward implementing an Arab League plan to end the Syria crisis. Other points are pulling heavy Syrian weapons out of cities, stopping attacks on protesters, opening talks with the opposition and allowing foreign human rights workers and journalists in.

If the United Nations Protection Force from Srebrenica gives us any historical indication, the UN's observation skills too often include turning a blind eye to atrocities. Let's hope that the weak monitoring skills put on display by the Arab League don't become even more desensitized to the killings unfolding every day in Syria.

It was no coincidence that al-Faisal mentioned Russia today, which would like observation to continued indefinitely with heads buried fully in the sand.

LEARN ABOUT: Who are the Syrian opposition?

Rescue crews continued today to search the wreckage of a luxury cruise liner that ran aground late Friday off the Tuscan coast. The death toll stood at five in the Costa Concordia tragedy, with at least 15 people still missing. A South Korean couple on their honeymoon and a crew member were rescued from the capsized vessel and added to the survivors' list on Sunday. Amid complaints from passengers that they were not let through evacuation procedures by the crew are fresh suspicions about the conduct of the ship's captain. More from the Associated Press:

The ship's Italian owner, a subsidiary of Carnival Cruise lines, issued a statement late Sunday saying there appeared to be "significant human error" on the part of the captain, Francesco Schettino, "which resulted in these grave consequences."

Authorities were holding Schettino for suspected manslaughter and a prosecutor confirmed Sunday they were also investigating allegations the captain abandoned the stricken liner before all the passengers had escaped. According to the Italian navigation code, a captain who abandons a ship in danger can face up to 12 years in prison.

...Coast Guard officers later spotted Schettino on land as the evacuation unfolded. The officers urged him to return to his ship and honor his duty to stay aboard until everyone was safely off the vessel, but he ignored them, Coast Guard Cmdr. Francesco Paolillo said.

Schettino insisted he didn't leave the liner early, telling Mediaset television that he had done everything he could to save lives. "We were the last ones to leave the ship," he said.

Questions also swirled about why the ship had navigated so close to the dangerous reefs and rocks that jut off Giglio's eastern coast, amid suspicions the captain may have ventured too close while carrying out a maneuver to entertain tourists on the island.

Here's an excellent accounting of the ship's ordeal, with many pictures, at the Daily Mail. Here's a timeline of how the tragedy unfolded.

MORE: World's Worst Passenger Ship Disasters

(Photo by Laura Lezza/Getty Images)

It's still more than two hours until 2012 here in Washington, but as you can see Berlin rang in the new year in colorful style at the Brandenburg Gate. Here' s an update from around the globe from the Associated Press:

With glittering fireworks and star-studded celebrations from New Zealand to Times Square, the world eagerly welcomed a new year and hoped for a better future Saturday, saying goodbye to a year of hurricanes, tsunamis and economic turmoil that many would rather forget.

Revelers in Australia, Asia, Europe and the South Pacific island nation of Samoa, which jumped across the international dateline to be first to celebrate, welcomed 2012 with booming pyrotechnic displays. Fireworks soared and sparked over Moscow's Red Square, crowds on Paris' Champs-Elysees boulevard popped Champagne corks at midnight, and up to a million revelers were expected to jam New York's Times Square for the famed crystal-paneled ball drop.

But many approached the new year with more relief than joy, as people battered by weather disasters, joblessness and economic uncertainty hoped the stroke of midnight would change their fortunes.

Here at About World News, though, it's not quite time yet to only look forward. Visit the best of 2011 - the stories behind the headlines that were site chart-toppers and more.

(Photo by Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has declared a state of emergency in violence-torn regions of the country in the wake of a string of Christmas Day bombings by northern radical Islamist group Boko Haram. This includes closing the borders with Cameroon, Chad and Niger in the northeast, and forming a counterterrorism task force. From Reuters:

The blasts have raised fears that Boko Haram, a movement styled on the Taliban and whose name means "Western education is forbidden," is trying to ignite sectarian strife in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation and top oil producer.

Jonathan has been criticised by the opposition and Christian groups for what they said was a slow response to the bombings.

"The crisis has assumed a terrorist dimension," Jonathan said. "I therefore urge the political leadership (in northern local governments) to give maximum cooperation to ensure that the situation is brought under control."

He listed the northern local governments affected by the decree, including a part of Niger state near the capital Abuja, the northern half of the conflict-prone city of Jos, and parts of Yobe and Borno in the remote, semi-arid northeast.

This is being deemed the toughest government measures against Boko Haram since it started waging its campaign of terror in 2009. The Christmas blasts killed 42 and wounded 57.

(Photo by Theron Kirkman-Pool/Getty Images)